Company adding jobs at Chicago Rockford International Airport

Tuesday

Oct 22, 2013 at 10:30 AMOct 22, 2013 at 10:30 AM

By Brian LeafRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — High energy prices are translating into job growth at Emery Air, where contracts to fix and maintain a fuel-efficient turboprop commuter airplane model has led to the hiring of 30 aviation mechanics in the past several months.

Emery, which sells fuel and provides maintenance and repair on aircraft for regional airlines and business jets at Chicago Rockford International Airport, is finding a niche with the Bombardier Q400.

Emery is an MRO, an acronym for an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul company. As the airport tries to attract an MRO to work on large passenger and cargo planes and a technical college to train Airframe and Powerplant mechanics who can work on them, Emery has been quietly growing.

It has 165 employees and contractors, needs more hangar space for maintenance work on Q400’s flown by United Express. The airport board is considering leasing 22,800 square feet in a hangar formerly rented to Rubloff Development Group, 1601 Grumman Drive., to Emery for six months at $8,500 a month.

Emery began working on Q400s ­— a 70-seat passenger aircraft that is generally used on flights of 90 minutes or less — in 2010 for Seattle-based Horizon Air.

Horizon, which according to its Website has 51 Q400s, hired Emery to upgrade aircraft, which in the airline industry is becoming more popular on commuter routes because it uses less fuel than comparably sized commuter jets.

Emery CEO Stephen R. Bates said the company got a contract last fall to refurbish four Q400s that had been leased in South America. They’ve completed work on three of them.

During the summer Emery landed work on five United Express Q400s.

“We’re in a test phase, a courtship,” Bates said. “If everything goes well, we firmly believe there will be a long-term contract.”

If Emery gets a long-term contract, it may look to extend the lease with the airport.

“Six months from now other opportunities may come up and we can talk to Emery if they want to do something else,” said Mike Dunn, airport director. “We as an airport have made it very clear to Emery that we want to do everything possible to help them.”